Terms and Conditions

Summary

You should read the full terms and conditions but here is a quick summary of some important points to help guide you - the full terms and conditions still apply though.

Our games are usually made available during development and will contain errors and bugs.

Do not redistribute our games or any alterations of our games or game files.

You may develop tools, plug-ins and services as long as they do not seem official or approved by us, such as by using our logos. Do not make commercial use of anything we've made without our permission.

For those that who live in the United States, please click here to review the binding arbitration agreement and class action waiver that is part of these terms and conditions. Under the agreement, we both agree to use a neutral arbitrator to decide any individual claims that may arise and thus agree to waive our rights to bring individual claims in court for consideration by a judge or jury. We also agree that class action lawsuits and class-wide arbitrations are not allowed under the terms of the agreement.

We are trying to be open, honest and trusting with the hope that you hold us in the same regard.

Our games each have their own end user license agreements which explain how our games can be used.

Introduction

These terms and conditions are a legal agreement between you and us (Mojang AB). These terms and conditions incorporate the terms of use for the mojang.com website ("Account Terms"), our brand and asset usage guidelines, our arbitration agreement if you live in the United States, and our privacy policy. By agreeing to these terms and conditions you also agree to all parts of these four documents, so please read through them carefully. If you buy, download, use or play any of our games, you will also have to stick to the end user license agreement of that game. If you are young and you are having trouble understanding these terms and conditions, please ask a responsible adult such as your parent or guardian. Remember to check back here once in a while as we may update these terms and conditions, which will be effective the next time you use the Website or your account.

MOJANG ACCOUNT TERMS

These Account Terms cover the ways our websites mojang.com and minecraft.net (our "Website") will be provided to you and may be used by you. It is important to us that all of the members of our community can enjoy using our Website, so we've made these Account Terms to set a few ground rules. We also want to make sure that people don't use our Website in a way which might have a bad impact on our games or our brand.

By visiting our Website, you are agreeing to these Account Terms, which makes a legal agreement between us both. If you don't agree with these Account Terms, you should stop using the Website.

BINDING ARBITRATION AGREEMENT AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER

For those that who live in the United States, please click here to review the binding arbitration agreement and class action waiver that is part of these Account Terms. Under the agreement, we both agree to use a neutral arbitrator to decide any individual claims that may arise and thus agree to waive our rights to bring individual claims in court for consideration by a judge or jury. We also agree that class action lawsuits and class-wide arbitrations are not allowed under the terms of the agreement.

The complete Arbitration Agreement is on this page. You and we agree to it; please read it.

REGISTRATION, ACCOUNT AND PASSWORD

The details you give us as part of the registration must be correct. You can change your registration details if they become out of date. If you deliberately tell us something that you know isn't true, we may terminate or suspend your account.

You might need to register with us to access all of the parts of our Website. The username and password that you create and the activities occurring on your account are your responsibility, so please protect them and remember that our staff will never ask you to give out your password. You should change your password if you think someone whom you did not authorize knows what it is. Please note that we are not responsible if someone uses your password to do something on our Website that you don't like or that causes you harm.

RIGHTS OF USE AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

You are free to use our Website as long as you stick to these Account Terms. You can only use this Website and its content for your personal use. Your permission to use this Website is personal to you, so you can't give it to anyone else.

Don't forget that we still own the Website and the content on it, but we are giving you permission to use it. We want you to enjoy using our Website, but if we want, we can take away your permission to use our Website at any time if necessary.

If you want to notify us that you believe someone is infringing your intellectual property on our Website or services, please submit your notice here (https://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyrtInfrg.aspx). If appropriate, we may terminate the accounts of users who are repeat infringers. We reserve the right to take down any content in our discretion.

RESTRICTIONS AND OBLIGATIONS

You aren't allowed to hack, decompile or change our Website at all and you mustn't do so. This includes the code or any content or data. Basically, you should just leave it as it is. You also aren't allowed to create any software or content that mimics our Website or branding. We really don't want any of our community to get confused about which is the official Website and which is a website that someone other than us operates.

Please don't use our Website in a way which we might think is offensive, immoral or illegal, or makes other people feel uncomfortable. We don't want our Website to be used in a way which upsets people.

You can't use our Website for commercial purposes, and you aren't allowed to try to make money from using our Website.

FORUM AND COMMUNICATIONS

If we are running a forum, we are just allowing members of our community to put their thoughts on our Website. It doesn't mean we represent or agree with those thoughts, and we can't be held responsible for what people post on our Website.

If we happen to see a post that we think is offensive, we might take it down, but it's not our job to screen or moderate the posts people make. What we say about forums and posts also applies to anything which enables people to put any other content, views or material on our Website or send it to others using the Website.

If you are going to put something up on our Website, it must not be offensive to people or illegal, it must be honest, and it must be your own creation. Some examples of the types of things you must not put on our Website include: posts that include racist or homophobic language; posts that are bullying; posts that are offensive or that damage our or another person's reputation; posts that include porn, advertising or someone else's creation or image; or posts that impersonate a moderator or try to trick or exploit people.

If you put something you don't have the right to put on our Website, you could get into a lot of trouble so please don't do it. You agree that whatever you post does not infringe anyone else's intellectual property or other rights.

If you post any content on our Website, you must (and by doing so you actually do) give us permission to use, copy, modify, adapt, distribute and publicly display that content as part of our Websites and games. This permission is perpetual, worldwide and irrevocable. You also agree to let us permit others to use, copy, modify, adapt, distribute and publicly display your content. You are not giving up your ownership rights in your content, you are just giving us and other users permission to use it. For example, we may need to copy, reformat, and distribute content that you post on our website so others can read it. If you don't want to give us this permission, then please do not post any content on our Website. Please think carefully before you post any content, because it will be made public and might even be used by other people in a way you don't like.

We reserve the right to take down any content in our discretion.

Please watch out if you are talking to people on or through our Website. It is hard for either you or us to know for sure that what people say is true, or even if people are really who they say they are. You should always think twice about giving out information about yourself.

GOVERNING LAW, AND PLACE TO RESOLVE DISPUTES

These Account Terms do not affect any legal (statutory) rights that you may have under the law that applies to you for the Website or anything you buy through the Website. You might have certain rights which the law that applies to you says cannot be excluded. Nothing we say in these Account Terms will affect those legal rights, even if we say something which sounds like it contradicts your legal rights. That's what we mean when we say "subject to applicable law".

SUBJECT TO APPLICABLE LAW, When you use our Website or services, you use them 'as is'. This means that we are not making any promises to you about the standard or quality of our Website, its content or that our Website will be uninterrupted or error free. This means that we aren't responsible for any losses you may suffer as a result of your use of our Website.

If you and we ever have a dispute in court (and we hope that won't happen just as much as you do), the exclusive forum (that is, the place it will be handled) will be a state or federal court in King County, WA (if you live in the United States) or a court in Ontario (if you live in Canada). (If you live in the United States, most disputes go to arbitration, not court.) The laws of your state or province govern these Account Terms and all disputes, including disputes relating to them, our Game, or our Website, regardless of conflict of laws principles, except that the Federal Arbitration Act governs everything related to arbitration.

If we have linked our Website to another website, it doesn't mean we have checked that website. It just means that we think it's interesting. We aren't responsible for websites linked to our Website.

PURCHASES

You can buy games on our Website, as well as other products from third-parties. In order to do this, our Website is integrated with third party service providers. To buy some products shown on our Website, you will have to leave our Website and make the transaction on a third-party website. Aspects of those transactions are covered by our third party service providers, as well as these Account Terms. We try to make sure the Website only shows games or products that are available, but of course we can't guarantee that all of the games or products will always be available.

PRICE AND PAYMENT

The pricing and payment method are set out on our Website, but we might change them every once in a while and we can refuse any form of payment if we want, and we can return payment to you without completing a transaction if the item paid for was posted or priced by mistake. You must always pay in the currency set out on our Website, but your credit card company should be able to exchange your money if necessary. Your credit card company might do security checks to make sure it is really you making the order.

RETURNS, REFUNDS AND CANCELLATION

If you can't use a game or a product because it doesn't work, let us know and we'll try to help you out.

The purchase of a game through our Website provides you with a license to use the game that commences when the download of the game starts, following which you shall not be entitled to cancel your order for the game. If you first downloaded the game to play in DEMO mode and later buy a license code, your license commences when you redeem the license code.

You or we may cancel your account at any time. When your account terminates, your rights under these Account Terms terminate. The Arbitration Agreement (if you live in the United States) and sections above with headings "Restrictions and Obligations" and "Liability" will survive termination.

ERRORS

We do what we can to make sure all of the information on our Website is correct. However, sometimes there might be errors. We might also cancel or suspend a transaction if there has been an error.

PROMOTIONS

Sometimes we run promotions. If we do, the main rules of the promotion are below. There might be other rules relating to a particular promotion, but we will tell you about them when we tell you about the promotion.

The main rules are:

Only one promotion can be used at a time, and you can't use a promotion with another offer.

Discounts are only valid until the date specified and they only apply to purchases made on the Website.

Discounts are not refundable.

We may cancel or change a promotion at any time.

GENERAL STUFF

These Account Terms describe certain legal rights. The laws of your state or country may give you other rights, including consumer rights, which these Account Terms cannot change; if so, they apply as far as the law allows. Nothing excludes or limits our liability for death or bodily injury resulting from our negligence or fraudulent misrepresentations.

We may change these Account Terms from time to time, if we have reason to. For example, there might be changes to our games, our practices, or our legal obligations. We'll inform you of the change before it takes effect, either by posting a notice on our Website or some other reasonable way. If you use the Website or your account after the change, that means you agree to the changes. If you do not agree to the changes, stop using the Website. The changes will apply to your use of the Website when you next use it.

If you come to us with a suggestion for any one of our Websites or games, that suggestion is made for free and we have no obligation to accept or consider it. This means we can use or not use your suggestion in any way we want and we don't have to pay you for it. If you think you have a suggestion that we would be willing to pay you for, please do not submit your suggestion unless you have first told us you expect to be paid and we have responded in writing by asking you to submit the suggestion. This does not mean we would never pay for valuable contributions, but it does mean we have no obligation to pay.

Updated: 27 October 2015 12:44

ARBITRATION AGREEMENT

MINECRAFT END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT

MINECRAFT REALMS TERMS AND CONDITIONS

MOJANG.COM AND MINECRAFT.NET TERMS AND CONDITIONS

BINDING ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER IF YOU LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES

This Arbitration Agreement is part of the Minecraft End User License Agreement ("EULA") that governs your right to use Minecraft. It is also part of the Minecraft Realms Terms and Conditions and the Mojang.com and Minecraft.net Terms and Conditions. You and we also agree to these terms:

Individual Arbitration and Not in Court. We hope we never have a dispute, but if we do, you and we agree to try for 60 days to work it out informally. If we can't and you live in the United States, you and we agree to binding individual arbitration before the American Arbitration Association ("AAA") under the Federal Arbitration Act, and not to sue in court in front of a judge or jury. Instead, a neutral arbitrator will decide. AAA tries to make arbitration speedy and fair. Class action lawsuits, class-wide arbitrations, private attorney-general actions, and anything else where someone acts in a representative capacity, aren't allowed. Nor is combining individual proceedings without the consent of all parties

Disputes Covered – Everything Except IP. The term "dispute" is as broad as it can be. It means any claim or controversy between you and us concerning our Game, Minecraft Realms, a price, the EULA itself, the Terms and Conditions listed above, or this Arbitration Agreement, under any legal theory including contract, warranty, tort, statute, or regulation, except disputes relating to the enforcement or validity of your, your licensors', our, or our licensors' intellectual property rights.

Option 1 to resolve a dispute: Mail a Notice of Dispute. Our Arbitration Agreement is as generous as any we've seen because we respect our users and want to be fair. If you have a dispute and our customer service representatives can't fix it, mail a Notice of Dispute to Mojang AB c/o Microsoft Corporation, Attn: LCA Arbitration, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399. Tell us your name, address, how to contact you, what the problem is, and what you want. Download and use this form to make sure all the necessary information is included: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=245499. We'll do the same if we have a dispute with you. After 60 days, you or we may start an arbitration if we haven't worked it out.

Option 2 to resolve a dispute: Small Claims Court. Instead of mailing a Notice of Dispute, you can sue us in small claims court in the county where you live or King County, Washington, if you meet the court's requirements. We hope you'll mail a Notice of Dispute (option 1) and give us 60 days to try to work it out, but you don't have to before going to small claims court.

Arbitration Procedure. If a dispute isn’t resolved in small claims court or within 60 days after a Notice of Dispute, you or we may start an arbitration. The American Arbitration Association ("AAA") will conduct any arbitration under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. For more information, see www.adr.org or call 1-800-778-7879. To start an arbitration, submit the form available at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=245497 to the AAA and follow the steps on it. In a dispute involving $25,000 or less, any hearing will be telephonic unless the arbitrator finds good cause to hold an in-person hearing instead. Any in-person hearing will take place in the county where you live or King County, Washington; you choose. The arbitrator may award the same damages to you individually as a court could. The arbitrator may award declaratory or injunctive relief only to you individually to satisfy your individual claim; that means an arbitrator may determine your and our rights and order us to do something for you, but may not do either for a class or group of persons.

Fees and Payments:

Disputes Involving Any Amount. If you start an arbitration, we won't seek our AAA or arbitrator's fees and expenses, or your filing fees we reimbursed, unless the arbitrator finds the arbitration frivolous or brought for an improper purpose. If we start an arbitration, we will pay all filing, AAA, and arbitrator's fees and expenses. We won't seek our attorney's fees or expenses from you in any arbitration. Fees and expenses are not counted in determining how much a dispute involves.

Disputes Involving $75,000 or Less. We will promptly reimburse your filing fees and pay the AAA's and arbitrator's fees and expenses. If you reject our last written settlement offer made before the arbitrator was appointed, your dispute goes all the way to an arbitrator's decision (called an award), and the arbitrator awards you more than this last written offer, we will: (i) pay the greater of the award or $1,000; (ii) pay your reasonable attorney's fees, if any; and (iii) reimburse any expenses (including expert witness fees and costs) that your attorney reasonably accrues for investigating, preparing, and pursuing your arbitration. The arbitrator will determine the amount of fees, costs, and expenses unless you and we agree on them.

Disputes Involving More than $75,000. The AAA rules will govern payment of filing fees and the AAA's and arbitrator's fees and expenses.

_Conflict with AAA Rules. This Arbitration Agreement governs if it conflicts with the AAA's Consumer Arbitration Rules.

Rejecting Future Arbitration Changes. You may reject any change we make to this Arbitration Agreement (except address changes) by mailing notice within 30 days of the change to the Redmond, WA address above. If you do, the most recent version of the Arbitration Agreement before the change you rejected will apply.

Must File Within One Year. You and we must file in small claims court or arbitration any claim or dispute (except intellectual property disputes – see Disputes Covered) within one year from when it first could be filed. Otherwise, it's permanently barred. If you have a dispute, tell us now. We'll do the same.

Severability. If the class action waiver in this Arbitration Agreement is found to be illegal or unenforceable as to all or parts of a dispute, this Arbitration Agreement won't apply to those parts. Instead, those parts will proceed in court with the remaining parts proceeding in arbitration. If any other provision of this Arbitration Agreement is found to be illegal or unenforceable, that provision will be severed but the rest of this Arbitration Agreement will still apply.

Updated: 27 October 2015 12:44

BRAND AND ASSET USAGE GUIDELINES FOR OUR GAMES

All of our games are really important to us and to our community, which means that lots of you want to use our Brands and the things around our games to do cool stuff. We're happy about that. Sometimes, however, people go too far and do things that make the community think that their products and services are connected with or endorsed by us or even produced by us. We are not happy about that. Especially when people do it deliberately to take unfair advantage of the community and our work in that way. When that happens, fans buy things thinking they are official when they are not. That means we can't control quality etc. which diminishes the value of the work we have done and the trust that our community has in what we do.

We want you to keep doing the cool stuff that you do and so these Guidelines are intended to help everyone understand what we consider to be fair and unfair use of our "Name", "Brands" and "Assets". We've had some help from some lawyers and they will also help us if we need to take further steps to protect our rights but the purpose of these "Guidelines" is to give some clarity on what you can do without having to contact us (or our lawyers) and what you mustn't do or else we (or our lawyers) will have to contact you. We hope you understand.

GUIDELINES

These Guidelines cover the use of our Brands and our Assets. For these purposes, when we refer to:

a "Name" what we mean is the name of any one of our games, taglines, features, events, or company identity, as well as any names which are confusingly similar to the names of any of our games, taglines, features, events, or company identity;

our "Brands" what we mean is any Names and/or the related logos and distinctive characteristics of any of our Names and games;

our "Assets" what we mean is the code, software, graphics, textures, images, models, sound and audio from any of our games and any videos or screenshots taken from or our games.

These Guidelines apply in addition to and not in place of our Account Terms or End User License Agreements (EULAs). Please remember that we have always said in our EULAs that we have one major rule: do not distribute anything we've made. This means don't:

give copies of our games to anyone else;

make commercial use of anything we've made (including our Names, Brands, and Assets);

try to make money from anything we've made (including our Names, Brands, and Assets); or

let other people get access to anything we've made in a way that is unfair or unreasonable;

unless we specifically agree to it or allow it.

These Guidelines do not change that principle but are intended to help people understand what we expect and want.

Please also check back here from time to time because we may update these guidelines and provide further guidance.

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS

The first thing to say is that there are Essential Requirements that apply to all use of our Names, Brands, and Assets. If you are using any part of any Name, any of our Brands and /or any of our Assets, then what you are doing MUST:

NOT make people think that you or what you are doing is official; approved or endorsed by us; or associated or connected with us;

NOT be unlawful, deceptive, obscene, harmful or disparaging;

NOT take action that would harm or damage any of our Brands or any of our Assets;

NOT include anything else around it that makes people think that you or what you are doing is official; approved or endorsed by us; or associated or connected with us;

comply with the relevant Account Terms/EULA; and

sufficiently differentiate the use of any Name you are using from any other branding.

These are the "Essential Requirements".

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Non-Commercial Things

We are very relaxed about things you create for yourself. Pretty much anything goes there - so go for it, have fun, and just don't distribute anything we've made.

We are also quite relaxed about other non-commercial things so feel free to create and share videos, screen shots, independently created mods (that don't use any of our Assets), fan art, machinima, etc.

However, if you want to use any Name in the title of a product that you distribute or service that you provide (even if it is for free) then you have to:

follow the Essential Requirements;

do so in a way that honestly and fairly describes those things or the purpose of them;

ensure that the Name (which includes any confusingly similar name) is not the first word, doesn't use any other aspect of any of our Brands or Assets as part of any related branding, including as or as part of any logo; and

make it clear that the product is unofficial and not from Minecraft or approved by Minecraft.

This applies especially if you want to set up and run any non-commercial blogs, servers, community forums, fan sites, fan clubs, news groups, events and gatherings.

Commercial Things

We are less relaxed about commercial things. You may not use any Names in or as the main name or title of commercial things.

You may use a Name in a secondary name or title if you:

do so because it is necessary to honestly and fairly describe those things or the purpose of them;

follow the Essential Requirements;

ensure that the secondary title (which includes a Name or any confusingly similar name) is not the dominant element or the distinctive part of the complete name or title; and

don't use any other aspect of any of our Brands or Assets as part of any related branding, including as or as part of any logo.

"Minecraft - the ultimate server for learning" (we're NOT cool with that)

You may not make any other commercial use of any of our Brands or Assets. For example, you may not sell any merchandise that uses any of our Brands or Assets and you definitely may not use our Names as keywords or search tags for products that have no relationship with them or that are infringing or counterfeit.

We love the idea of people doing cool things with our games and sharing those things with the community. That's something we totally support and encourage. So please feel free to do so but please also make sure you don't go too far. For additional information, consult the Commercial Usage Guidelines (which are outside the scope of and do not form a part this agreement).

In addition to the specifics set out above, where we do allow you to do something you will always need to add a notice as follows:

NOT AN OFFICIAL MINECRAFT PRODUCT. NOT APPROVED BY OR ASSOCIATED WITH MOJANG.

Videos and Screenshots

You are allowed to put footage of our game on YouTube or any other website. In fact, we like you doing so.

So long as you stay within the Essential Requirements:

You may create, use and distribute videos of you playing or using our game for any lawful reason provided that you don't make any money from them.

However, you may make money using your videos of our game by, for instance, through ad revenue, as long as you also add your own unique content to the video, such as audio commentary. The amount you add must also be enough to make it fair and worthwhile for someone to pay for it or for you to make money from it. For example you couldn't just include your logo, web address or indent but you could add an audio commentary or your own music if you are creating a music video.

You may also make money using videos and screen-shots if it is covered by so called "fair dealing" or "fair use" exceptions to copyright, such as where it is for criticism and review, reporting current affairs etc. In each case, you will still need to add appropriate additional content and credits where applicable.

...more will follow as and when we decide what to add - so feel free to make requests.

If something isn't covered by these Guidelines and we haven't otherwise said it's okay, that probably means we don't want you to do it. In any case if it isn't covered please don't do it without getting written permission from us. You can contact us at brands at mojang.com. If something is specifically covered and permitted by these Guidelines, our Account Terms or EULAs applicable to any of our games then you don't need to contact us.

Updated: 22 June 2017 11:34

Minecraft Commercial Usage Guidelines

However, since we do love the idea of players and fans doing cool things and sharing them with the community, and we realize that sometimes you need to charge to cover your costs, the following explains what we (currently) consider to be commercial use / commercial things. This may change as time goes by but for now we hope that it helps you understand what you can and can’t do, and helps Minecraft fans do more (and limit those that try to go too far).

We have therefore drafted these Guidelines to allow some leniency with respect to limited commercial activity as outlined below. They don't form part of the Policies but they exist because we currently think it is a good idea to let some of these things happen. Please note that we reserve the right to change our mind at any time (such as if people start to take advantage of our good intentions) and to update these Guidelines. So please don't count on these Guidelines always being here or in the specific form they are right now.

We also want to make it clear that these Guidelines are for the community of Minecraft players and fans. They do not authorize commercial companies, corporate brands, advertising agencies, non-profits, or governments to use or exploit Minecraft for promoting products or services unrelated to Minecraft. See below for more detail in the section, “Building Promotions into Minecraft.”

Above all we are trying to find a way to let our brilliant fans do great things for each other without others coming along and spoiling it for everyone.

ON THAT BASIS, THEREFORE:

Naming Guidelines

If you comply with and follow the Essential Requirements (in the Brand and Asset Usage Guidelines) YOU MAY use our Names (as defined in the Brand and Asset Usage Guidelines) in connection with a product or service title or listing (including on web sites or YouTube) if:

the Name is in a secondary name or title (or secondary part of it);

you do so because it is necessary to honestly and fairly describe those things or the purpose of them;

you ensure that the Name (which includes any confusingly similar name) is not the dominant element or the distinctive part of your complete name or title;

you don't use any other aspect of the Brands or Assets (as defined in the Brand and Asset Usage Guidelines) as part of any related branding, including as or as part of any logo.

Examples of naming: "The Shaft - a Minecraft podcast" (we're cool with that). "Minecraft - the ultimate help app" (we're NOT cool with that).

To help you understand part of this and just so we are clear, regardless of anything else, YOU MAY NOT use the Name in or as the main or dominant name or title of any commercial product or service.

These are the “Naming Guidelines” and they apply to everything you might do under these Guidelines.

Hand Crafted Products

If you comply with and follow the Essential Requirements (in the Brand and Asset Usage Guidelines) and Naming Guidelines YOU MAY:

make and sell certain individual (i.e. not mass produced) handcrafted products that are inspired by Minecraft so long as you conform with all of the following:

any product or design is otherwise entirely original and unique (a “Unique Design”);

no part of the Brand and / or Assets forms a dominant element or substantial part of the product or its design;

you make no use of any software, sound or audio from Minecraft;

you mark clearly and prominently on each such product and all related materials and product listings/descriptions that it is “NOT OFFICIAL MINECRAFT PRODUCT. NOT APPROVED BY OR ASSOCIATED WITH MOJANG”;

you are explicit about who to contact about the product and / or purchase, who the seller and manufacturer are, and that the seller and manufacturer are NOT Mojang, NOT associated with Mojang, and NOT supported by Mojang;

Mojang has no liability for the products or purchase;

you don’t make and sell more than 20 product items using the same (or a substantially similar) Unique Design. This means you can make 20 T-shirts using Design A and 20 T-shirts using Design B, but you cannot make 21 T-shirts using Design A; nor can you make 20 T-shirts using Design A plus 3 mugs using Design A;

you sell those products only through a website or service / channel that independently records the quantities of the product sold and enables us to independently verify that information;

you comply with all other laws and requirements; and

make no more than $5000 for any calendar year from selling products under these Guidelines.

To help you understand this and just so we are clear, a Unique Design is something that adds enough personal creativity to make the work distinctive and original. You can’t just feature the graphics (textures) of Steve’s face on a product and call it “Inspired by Minecraft”. You also can’t just change a few pixels, or colors.

Additionally, we have set these product number limitations because we do not mean to permit people to commercialize our Name, Brand, or Assets, or run businesses selling products featuring our Name, Brands, or Assets.

Indeed, the goal is to allow hobbyists to share their work and the fruits of their creative labors and make some money using their own creativity. It is not a way for businesses to start using our Brands and / or Assets - if that happens we’ll do something about it.

Videos and Streams

If you comply with and follow the Essential Requirements (in the Brand and Asset Usage Guidelines) and Naming Guidelines YOU MAY create, use and distribute videos and streams of you playing or using Minecraft for any lawful reason and YOU MAY make money from them by adding or permitting advertising in them, so long as:

all video downloads are free to view (i.e. there is no pay wall or other charge to view the videos);

all streams are made free to view within 24 hours;

you add your own unique content to the video or stream, such as audio commentary or footage of you making cool stuff;

you don’t create and use videos or streams whose purpose is to advertise or promote other products or services;

you don’t sell physical copies of videos or streams, i.e. DVDs etc.;

you don’t broadcast or distribute videos or streams via television.
To help you understand this, the amount of unique content you add must be enough to make it reasonable for you to make money through advertising (and we reserve our right to decide on that).

This means that you can upload your own unique content to sites such as YouTube and make money from advertising around the video but you cannot distribute those videos on iTunes and charge for the content. Nor can you charge for a subscription to a channel where those videos are available unless the Minecraft related videos are also readily available for free outside of that subscription channel. Basically, videos must be free to consumers at the point of consumption and any money you make should come from other sources like display ads and sponsors, subject to the section below on “Building Promotions with Minecraft.”

Extended Functionality and “Mods”

If you comply with and follow the Essential Requirements (in the Brand and Asset Usage Guidelines) and Naming Guidelines above YOU MAY distribute or make available plug-ins and other bits and pieces of extended functionality etc. that you create (together, "Mods") for free and without any charge, but not if the purpose of your Mod is to advertise or promote other products or services (see the section below on Building Promotions with Minecraft). By "Mods," we mean something original that you created that doesn't contain a substantial part of our copyrightable code or content. We have the final say on what constitutes a Mod and what doesn't. When you combine your Mod with the Minecraft software, we will call that combination a "Modded Version" of the Game. You MAY NOT distribute any Modded Versions of our Game or software, though you may distribute Mods. You may make money from Mods as described below in the section, "Servers and Hosting."

Therefore, if you comply with and follow the Brand and Asset Usage Guidelines and Naming Guidelines above YOU MAY:

charge for access to your server, including a server which hosts your Mods, BUT only if:

you make a single charge per person that is the same for everyone;

you give everyone you charge, access to all the Mods that you choose to have on your server (except only in respect of genuine admin tools / admin Mods which should be reserved to administrators);

you only give access to your server to users who have a genuine paid for version of Minecraft;

you own or control the server and continue to do so for the whole time that you charge for access to it - so, if you sell the actual servers or server space with Mods pre-installed on them, you must ensure that the person buying the server is aware that she must follow these rules. Essentially you can’t get round the rules above by setting up servers with Mods on and then selling those set-ups; and

overall your access charges should be targeted to cover your operational costs of running the server.

ask for donations (as opposed to direct charges) IF you do not offer the individual donor something in exchange that only he or she can use. You may offer server wide rewards if donation goals are achieved though.

sell cosmetic items, except for “Capes”, IF the item sold does not give a user an unfair gameplay advantage over anyone else on the server - i.e there can be no “pay to win”.

sell positive effects or enhancements (other than “Capes”) IF everyone on the server is positively affected in exactly the same way.

provide in-game advertising opportunities, sponsorships, or product placement for 3rd parties IF they don’t degrade or interfere with gameplay or give a user an unfair gameplay advantage over anyone else on the server.

use in-game currencies IF (i) they are “soft currencies” i.e. a currency earned or expended only through gameplay that has no real world value and that cannot be cashed out, used or transferred across free or paid servers, or converted into “credits”; and (ii) you don’t give the impression that it comes from or is associated with Mojang.

In all of these cases above YOU MUST also ensure that:

all servers, items and advertising are suitable for the target audience (i.e no gambling, pornography etc.) and don’t damage the Brand.

you don’t pretend to be us or claim to have any association with us (for example, when selling product placement opportunities);

you are explicit about who to contact about the server, who the operator is, and that it is NOT Mojang, NOT associated with Mojang and NOT supported by Mojang;

Mojang has no liability for anything on the server or that happens on it, including any advertising, purchases or donations;

you provide any user who gives you money an online payment /purchase history;

you are transparent on informing users with regard to all the content and pricing applicable to your server before a person joins, signs up or logs in;

you do not host or distribute malware, spyware, or engage in illegal activity through your server;

you comply with all other laws and requirements; and

you comply with any other additional requirements applicable under these Guidelines.

Domain Names and Web Sites

If you comply with and follow the Essential Requirements (in the Brand and Asset Usage Guidelines) YOU MAY:

set up and run your own web site to provide information regarding the Minecraft game and to run related forums, so long as you comply with these Guidelines;

also register and use an appropriate domain name that includes one of our Names or Brands for this purpose so long as:

we don’t consider the domain name you register to seem official and you don’t use the domain name in a way that seems official - and it doesn’t become something that seems official;

your website actually relates to the Minecraft game, the Brand and / or Assets in a fair or reasonable and appropriate way;

your website relates exclusively to Minecraft and not other third party games;

any third party advertising does not damage our Brand;

you don’t do so for cybersquatting or principally to make money, including through affiliate services.

Building Promotions with Minecraft

Without prior written approval from Mojang, corporations, businesses, advertising agencies, non-profits, governments, and other entities MAY NOT use Minecraft gameplay to promote or market unrelated brands, products, campaigns, or services.

Specifically, if you are one of these entities or someone who is hired by them, you MAY NOT exploit Minecraft or Minecraft assets to:

build or commission others to build, a Minecraft mod, map or server that promotes or markets unrelated products or services in playable form; for example, you are NOT allowed to market or promote a branded automobile using a mod that depicts branded automobiles within Minecraft game play;

build or commission others to build, a Minecraft mod/map/server that promotes or markets a company’s movie or TV show; for example, you are NOT allowed to build maps and/or videos using Minecraft blocks that build out the world or characters of a movie to promote and market your company’s or your client’s movie or TV program;

offer Minecraft gameplay displayed or projected publicly within physical locations; for example, you are NOT allowed to promote or advertise big-screen Minecraft gameplay inside restaurants or other commercial venues; and you are NOT allowed to charge money for Minecraft gameplay, leagues, or competitions in theaters where gameplay is projected onto the movie screen;

create or commission others to create promotional or marketing videos or movie trailers through Minecraft gameplay; for example, you are NOT allowed to create or produce movie trailers through Minecraft gameplay for promoting or marketing a movie;

Pay to advertise your business in an advertisement window within a Minecraft video; for example, by displaying a banner ad or by selling your ads on YouTube where they may be shown in connection with Minecraft videos uploaded independently by players;

Pay for advertisements of your business to be served on websites or servers related to Minecraft, so long as you are not hiring the server operator to design or host a Minecraft mod/map/server that builds an in-world representation of your brand, products, or services.

Build products or movie environments that you are a fan of into a Minecraft mod/map/server so long as you have not been asked to do so by the entity who makes the product or by someone they have hired to promote their brand or products; likewise, you can express your support for a political candidate in a map/mod/server, but not if you have been hired to promote them.

Books and Other Publications

If you comply with and follow the Essential Requirements (in the Brand and Asset Usage Guidelines) and Naming Guidelines YOU MAY write and publish works inspired by Minecraft (“Publications”) so long as:

you don’t use the Minecraft logo or the word “Minecraft” in letters that look like, or attempt to look like, the style of our logo anywhere on the front or back covers of your Publication;

you don’t just copy the Brand or Assets in the Publication, but instead you add your own unique and original content such as your own story – so no coloring books, posters, or sticker books or charts that just copy our Assets;

the main content and value of your work is original material that you create or contribute, and not the Brand or Assets;

you do not use official Minecraft artwork, such as images taken from official Minecraft product packaging, official Minecraft merchandise, or official Minecraft marketing, on the cover of your Publication. However, for example, you may use screenshots of your original Minecraft creations on the cover of your Publication, provided the overall cover of your Publication does not create the impression that it is an official Mojang publication or authorized by Mojang;

the word “Minecraft” is not the first word or dominant part of the title of your Publication or the name of your publisher or the name of a series of books – but it may be used as a secondary name or secondary title (or secondary part of it) where it is necessary to honestly and fairly describe the Publication or the purpose of it. For example, “Minecraft Players Guide” is not okay as a title, but “Guidebook for Minecraft Players” might be okay if the other rules are followed too;

you mark clearly and prominently on each Publication and all related materials and product listings/descriptions that it is "NOT OFFICIAL MINECRAFT PRODUCT. NOT APPROVED BY OR ASSOCIATED WITH MOJANG";

you are explicit about who to contact about the Publication and / or any related purchase, who the seller and manufacturer / publisher are, and that the seller and manufacturer / publisher are NOT Mojang, NOT associated with Mojang, and NOT supported by Mojang;

you understand and agree that Mojang has no liability for the Publication or any related purchase;

you comply with all other laws, regulations and legal requirements;

the title you use does not create the impression that it is official or authorized.

General

YOU MAY:

Do things that are specifically covered by “fair dealing” or “fair use” exceptions to copyright and trade mark laws.

YOU MAY NOT:

Do things that are not specifically permitted by these Guidelines or expressly allowed by applicable laws.

All Uses

In relation to all uses (permitted or otherwise):

all rights (including copyright, trademark rights and related rights) in the Name, Brand, and Assets and any derivatives are and will remain owned by Mojang;

all and any permissions and consents are given by Mojang in our discretion and make be revoked at any time if we think that it is appropriate to do so or we don’t like what you are doing; and

all rights are expressly reserved.

If something isn't covered by these Guidelines that probably means we don't want you to do it. In any case if it isn't covered please don't do it without getting permission from us.

You can contact us at brands at mojang.com.

If something is specifically covered and permitted by these Guidelines and our Minecraft terms of use then you don't need to contact us.